Question Can't overclock, can't get rams detected by bios past 8 gb even though it was working before.

[Djabolic]

My setup is; Asus P8Z68-V LX motherboard paired with i7 2600 (non-K) and 2x Corsair Vengeance 1600 Mhz 4Gb (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9R) + 2x Corsair Vengeance Pro 1600 Mhz 4Gb (CMY16GX3M2A1600C9).

My issue is; while tinkering with bios thinking that it'll just launch another tool I accidently ran Asus OC Tuner, my computer restarted a lot and I've panicked since I had no idea how OC Tuner works at all. After few restarts I've decided to shut down pc and gave it another try. Failed. After few more tries I've removed all the plugged in rams except one, pc successfully booted at last with 4gb ram recognized but still failed to boot at random times. I've decided to clear the CMOS and did so by removing motherboard battery. All my bios settings and bios internal clock were reset except the entire AI Tweaker settings page. I've loaded up defaults by pressing F5 and and reboot my computer once again.

Now the issue is; even thou I was able to get to 103.0 BCLK, 42x cpu multiplier (4326 mhz) coupled with 1648 mhz ram speed with all 16Gb of my ram detected before. Now I'm unable boot my computer if I go any higher than 1333mhz or able to get my bios to detect all my ram. Both ASUS SPD Information in bios and CPU-Z shows that I really have 4x4GB memory kits installed but Windows and bios is stubborn about having only 8gb ram installed.

Second issue is, I was able to one click overclock my cpu and ram before from the Asus EZ Mode now changing it to High Performance mode now it causes a few failed boots and restarts then all the settings getting reset.

Oh I also lost access to iGPU. I can't enable it from anywhere. It's completely absent.

Does anyone have any idea what could be the issue here? I'm about to follow the guide here. Because

P: System detects all the RAM, but can use only a half of it.
P: Integrated GPU is not working.

is almost describes my problem but I wanted to get at least someone else's opinion before doing so this time.

So, please help me to fix this issue. Computer is working perfectly at 3400 Mhz + 1333 mhz rams with only 8 gb recognized but I want to go back to what it was before.

Please help. :\

 

[VirtualLarry]

Something burned. Sorry. Buy new working gear. Or check your CPU socket pins / CPU LGA pads for burn marks.

 

[Arkaign]

Uninstall all the Asus utilities, reset cmos again. Try ONE pair of ram at a time, first in one bank, then the other.

Report back.

As VL notes, this may be a case of damaged hardware. The auto utils are trash, and can overvolt or corrupt your data. Always best to learn and do Mobo settings manually with care and understanding.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Oh, I didn't realize that "Asus EZ-Mode" was a software application, I thought it was a setting in the BIOS, that auto-OC/test-OCs, and it went too high. (Some of them really overvolt badly, which can be very risky to hardware.)

 

[Arkaign]

For that era, I think it's both. Those were REALLY early Asus EFI bios, and not great. They also had a terrible bundle of software including the referenced OC tuner, monitor, etc.

 

[Djabolic]

Uninstall all the Asus utilities, reset cmos again. Try ONE pair of ram at a time, first in one bank, then the other.

Report back.

As VL notes, this may be a case of damaged hardware. The auto utils are trash, and can overvolt or corrupt your data. Always best to learn and do Mobo settings manually with care and understanding.

All 4 of my rams work in all 4 mb slots without issues. I've tried almost every combination possible. I've tested every ram in every slot one by one and never had an issue, also they work as pairs either in A1 - A2 or B1 - B2 position according to my MB manual, both kits work as 8GB alone but if I plug all 4 of them bios refuses to see all 16gb as I've previously stated.

I've also uninstalled asus utilities and reset CMOS and tried to get only one of my 4GB stick ram to work in 1600 mhz but this immedaitely triggers an overclocking error. Also somehow Turbo Ratio option is not showing oy my Ai Tweaker page anymore and some options either lost or is in another area.

And to be clear; The ASUS EZ-Mode I'm talking about is the bios setting.

This ^

While looking like this before;


Now it looks like this;


Except the DIGI+ VRM section I've never had.

I took these images from here, I guess he had the same issue but went for RMA instead.

I've also found this thread stating some of the issues I'm having. I'm really convinced that this is related to ME Region corruption on my bios, so my other question is how risky ME region reflashing is? Is there a possibility to completely brick MB while reflashing ME region?

I'm thinking of getting a Z77 Sabertooth to replace my MB if this one gets bricked since I don't want to upgrade my MB + RAM + CPU combo soon.

 

[Djabolic]

Well I did the brave thing and reflashed ME region and it worked. Temporarily. Bios detected my ram as 16gb but after shut down god damn mb managed to corrupt itself again pushing me back to having 8gb ram. I'm on my way to get a Z77 as it's replacement since I don't want to deal with this anymore. Thanks guys.

 

[Arkaign]

Sounds good

For the 77 and 2500k, try manual OC instead of the auto tools (either bios or windows based). BCLK is not necessary to touch, more risk than reward. Up the multi to find your spot, with only the most modest vcore bump, and you should find something between 4.4-4.8 depending on your HSF and lottery. You won't need any of the Asus windows apps, they are already wildly out of date anyway for the Z77s. Intel XTU and CpuZ are plenty, and your OC will be nicely locked in already just by the multi and manual voltage tune. You can look at a great many 2500k/2600k overclock guides if you want

 

[piasabird]

Overclocking can ruin components. Problem solved. RAM can and will go bad. Especially if overclocked. Move that one stick of RAM to different slots and see what happens. It it works in different slots, the Other RAM sticks are probably bad. Power supply can also affect RAM. Also problems can occur if SSD or M.2 drives heat up. Problems can also be caused by faulty liquid coolers not circulating the liquid.

 

[piasabird]

I still have a running 2500K computer with no video card and the stock cooler. I did not overclock components. I think for the CPU all the cores run at the same speed. I have the Intel branded motherboard.